The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved updated Covid-19 vaccines but has placed new restrictions on who can get them.
The agency has authorized Covid vaccines for people 65 and older, who are known to be more at risk from serious illnesses from Covid infections.
Younger people, though, will only be eligible if they have an underlying medical condition that makes them particularly vulnerable. This means that the upcoming fall and winter seasons will be the first where the US government hasn’t recommended widespread Covid vaccinations.
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, said in a post on Twitter/X that Covid vaccine “mandates” under Joe Biden are now rescinded and that the vaccines will be available to those at high risk.
For children, Kennedy said that the Moderna vaccine is approved for those older than six months, the Pfizer vaccine for those older than five years and the Novavax shot for those older than 12.
“These vaccines are available for all patients who choose them after consulting with their doctors,” Kennedy said in his social media post. “The American people demanded science, safety, and common sense. This framework delivers all three.”
Kennedy, who previously founded an anti-vaccine group, has long questioned the proven benefits of vaccines and spread unfounded concerns about their safety.
As health secretary, Kennedy has cut $500m in funding for flu and Covid vaccines and his agency has started to ague that the risks of Covid shots outweigh the benefits. Vinay Prasad, the administration’s top vaccine regulator, has overruled career scientists to limit Covid vaccine approvals, including for Moderna’s vaccine, several times in recent months.
Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed that the FDA was considering not renewing Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for young children, which would have removed the only remaining such vaccine for children under five.
In recent years, rates of vaccine use have dropped in the US, to about 23% of all adults and 13% of people under the age of 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
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While proponents of vaccine restrictions argue that only those most at risk should get shots, critics point out that children can still get seriously sick from Covid.
“Our healthcare system is now solidly anti-children and anti-science,” Fatima Khan, co-founder of the Protect Their Future group, which advocates for vaccine access for children, told CNN.
“The data are clear: young children – especially infants – remain highly vulnerable to severe illness and hospitalization from Covid-19. By restricting access to safe, evidence-based vaccines, federal leaders are choosing ideology over science.”